Is It Time To Sell Your “Upside Down” Rental Property

You had the perfect home, then the bubble burst. All of a sudden your perfect home was an upside down home that had you so far underwater you were drowning, and unable to sell. So you moved out and rented it out in order to pay the mortgage. Now the market is rebounding and your upside down home is finally righting itself. So is it time to sell?

The answer is easy, but complicated

The easy answer is yes, if the value of your home now exceeds the mortgage balance. The complicated answer is with tenants there you may not want to or be able to sell right away. Not right away because you probably have a lease in place that requires notice. Notice requirements won’t stop listing the home, but will add time to when you can sell. That aside, your tenants saved your butt when values tanked and made it possible to keep your property instead of losing it and your credit rating to foreclosure. Just throwing them out would be rude.

So what can you do?

If you’ve decided to sell you can sell with the tenant in place. For a buyer looking for an investment property, that’s a huge plus. They don’t have to find a tenant. No down time, income immediately. If you don’t want to sell it as an investment property then you’ll need to move your tenant out. You’ll need to work with your tenant to help them find another place to live. This is especially true if your tenant was a good one. Work with your Realtor to help them out.

Remember that this sale isn’t all about you

Another person or family is affected as well. If you alienate them they can make your sale particularly difficult, long and expensive. So, be kind to your tenants. Help them and you can finally be out from under your upside down home.